The trio had moved to
the living room – Naruto and Sasuke had explained everything that
happened so far to the Hokage-sama and she actually seemed to be
taking it very well.

Tsunade was quite calm
sipping her tea, gold eyes on both ninja.

Naruto narrowed his
eyes suspiciously; Tsunade hadn't said much of anything since the
explanation and it was strange. "Tsunade why are you so quiet?"
He finally blurted out, sounding just a little confused.

"I was just thinking
about the mission."

"Mission?" Naruto
blinked, "I thought you said it required Sasuke and me?"

"It does."

Sasuke narrowed her
eyes at the other woman. "I can't change back. I have to refuse
the mission." She didn't like saying it but Sasuke wasn't going
to put her unborn child at risk – even for the Hokage-sama.

"No you don't."

"Yes she does."
Naruto cut in – surprising the Uchiha with his conviction, "She's
not going on the field; I'll take the mission alone Sasuke's not
coming."

Sasuke was quiet, her
dark eyes looking to the blonde's flushed face and determined blue
eyes.

Naruto blushed, "We're
not married and I don't care what the mission is!"

"Actually it works
much better this way." Tsunade mused, "I actually was going to
make a proposal to you to turn into a female for this mission and
pretend you two were a couple. However, Sasuke already is a female so
it works out perfectly!"

Sasuke's brows
furrowed before she shot a glance to the fox, wordlessly wanting him
to figure out the details, she didn't feel like asking a bunch of
stupid questions but that was Naruto's forte.

"What do you mean?"
Naruto snapped, "We have to pretend to be a couple?"

"An under-cover
mission." Tsunade waved her hand, "We're going to place you
right in the center of the Rice Village to see what's been going
on."

"What's been going
on?"

Tsunade grinned, "You
two accept the mission?"

"Tell me first."
Naruto said, his blue eyes determined.

"You get the mission
report when you accept."

"Is there immediate
danger?" Sasuke finally asked her tone bland.

"The point of the
mission is just to have you two sniff around, make some friends, lay
low sort of thing and just report everything you see as odd back to
Konoha." Tsunade said simply, "It's been rumored that even
though they aren't a ninja village themselves they've been
recruiting some high-class Anbu."

"Why?" Naruto
asked, clearly intrigued.

"The mission report
will be available to you, if you accept." She said cheekily before
she took a swig of her tea.

Naruto glanced to
Sasuke who in turn kept her dark black eyes on the blonde woman,
"They won't know we're from Konoha?"

"That's the idea."
Tsunade murmured, "Now, do you two accept?"

Naruto shifted a
little uneasily, his eyes looking to Sasuke and her belly before he
turned back to Tsunade.

Safe.

The mission sounded
relatively safe.

They couldn't go
without pay; they needed to take whatever job they could get.

Despite the sinking
feeling in the blonde's stomach he decided to speak for both of
them, "We accept."

"Good, good."
Tsunade clapped her hands before she lifted herself off the cushions,
"I'll see you two bright and early tomorrow morning in my
office."

Naruto and Sasuke sat
in realative silence as the older woman left the home, the sound of
the front door shutting vibrating around them.

They had such a good
morning too; they were actually doing okay and then Tsunade threw
this at them.

What if something
happened?

What if Sasuke died?

What if the baby died?

Naruto's brain was
slowly imploding; his whole body jerked – startled when Sasuke put
her small hand on his shoulder. He immediately looked up to her stoic
face unable to pick out any emotions, unable to read what she might
be thinking.

"It'll be fine."
She offered before she took her hand away and walked right past the
kitsune towards her own room.

Naruto wanted to say
something, wanted to yell at Sasuke to come back but there wasn't a
point.

They accepted the
mission.

There was no backing
out.

They'd be prime
targets in a village full of enemies.

Were they ready for
this?

Naruto hung his head
making a disapproving noise in the back of his throat.

What else could go
wrong?

--

A/N:

I'm so sorry this
took forever to make, and that the chapter is so damn short but I
thought it was a good stopping point.

Next chapter is going
to be rather long so please just bear with this little short chapter
for right now.

Leave a review if any
of you still care for this story! Thank you!

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